Overwatch 6 Mistakes to Avoid

by MxChamp24

Introduction

Hey everyone my name is Dragonmar, and I’ve got a really interesting video for you guys. I’ve been watching Shroud play a lot of Overwatch recently, and it became apparent to me that there are some mistakes that it seems like every new player makes. I guess I had just assumed a lot of people coming from an FPS background wouldn’t do a lot of this stuff, but I was very wrong. It’s also been a long time since I was at this point in my OW career so there is a good chance I did the exact same mistakes. Regardless, this video focuses on the 6 mistakes that I saw CONSTANTLY throughout Shrouds games, and throughout low ranked games in Overwatch in general.

The video (you can always watch as you read along)

Video Summary

There are some mistakes that are simply unavoidable as a new player. You lack the game knowledge, and awareness required to avoid them. I’ll be outlining 6 major mistakes all new players make and briefly listing the easiest way to correct them.

Mistake #1: Jumping to avoid shots instead of crouching

• Very few games don’t use jumping to mix up the movement and avoid damage
• New players rely too much on aim, not movement
• Movement in Overwatch is fast paced, jumping reduces that speed
• Jumping locks you into a set, linear motion that can easily be tracked
• The simple solution is to spam crouch instead. Use a combination of AD/AD strafing and crouching to dodge shots. Never jump.

Mistake #2: Misusing high ground or completely ignoring it

• I saw this a lot while watching Shroud
• Highground is very important because few characters can easily take it
• Few games have the same verticality as Overwatch
• New players aren’t used to the concept of high ground, and if they are they underestimate it
• It’s almost ALWAYS beneficial to take high ground when you can. You can jump down and leave it any time you want but you cannot always get back up so easily.
• High ground always you to take fights when you want, ducking down to take cover from shots
• The simple solution is to always push towards high ground first and make your next move once you’ve take highground.

Mistake #3: Frontlining as a non-tank

• You need to play your role in Overwatch, as every character fills a very specific part of the team
• New players like to push up, and often times they tunnel vision very easily
• A lot of times new players will chase low health enemies
• Frontlining refers to being the closest player to the enemy. This role is generally done by main tanks. New players push forward, walking in front of shields, and ignoring positioning.
• You get melted when you walk in front of shields. Yet they keep doing it.
• This does for the most part exclude Flankers like Tracer, Genji, Doom etc.
• The simple solution is to always play behind shields unless your team has a specific strat in mind. The easiest solution to looking for picks is to move horizontally from your team to find angles. You can also take high ground behind your team, as long as you aren’t too far away.

Mistake #4: Trickling In and Playing Solo

• Lack of game knowledge is the biggest fault here, and I can’t fault new players for that
• Overwatch is heavily team based and newer players don’t understand that well enough until they actually play. Very few team games have the same level of teamwork, where you are entirely reliant on your teammates for certain things. Seagull said this in his stream earlier today about how people just can’t understand how important teamwork is in OWL.
• A Big problem is understanding when a fight is lost and when to get out. You end up staggering deaths, resulting in a longer time until your team is back at full strength. You also give free ult charge to the enemy.
• Playing solo is really about not understanding your role, and not understanding how to play off the other roles.
• You can’t expect to win if you don’t play together with your teammates. You should never being trying to 1v6, regardless of how good your aim is.
• The simple solution is to always be looking at the killfeed. Make sure you know at all times who is alive and who is dead on each team. It’s also important to always stay within healing distance of your supports. This really eliminates your ability to accidently go in solo in a lot of situations and will remind you to stay close to supports, who are normally with your tanks anyways.

Mistake #5: Wasting Ultimates

• This is really bad, especially for new players. As some will know, this actually happens at all ranks and at all skill levels. It’s really hard sometimes to know when to and when not to use your ult.
• New players have it the worst as they don’t always have a good grasp on what to expect their ultimates to actually do.
• The simple solution is to follow these few rules to not waste ults: 1. Always check to make sure you have teammates around you to follow up on ultimates like graviton. 2. Check the killfeed prior to ulting, make sure you have targets in mind and that you didn’t already win the teamfight. 3. Make sure you other support isn’t already ulting, no need to overlap support ultimates. 4. Tell your team your plan, or that you are about to ult so they can prepare.

Mistake #6: Not using sound or ignoring it completely

New players don’t always think of sound as a huge part of the game

• They may come from games where footsteps aren’t really important, or teams don’t use voice comms to make callouts.
• Hearing enemy ultimates is really important as it generally gives you an extra second or two to react
• Hearing enemy footsteps can give you the edge on flankers
• Listening for sniper shots can help you take cover when you otherwise would be unaware
• The simple solution is to join voice chat at all times for callouts even if you don’t talk. You should also not being playing music too loud, so that you can always hear footsteps and ultimates clearly. Learn the audio cues, they are very important in Overwatch.

Conclusion

One of the hardest things for new players to do is to be able to look back at past games, and identify when they made these mistakes. Hopefully this list will be able to help some of you identify some of the mistakes you may still be making. Please leave a comment if you have a question relating to ANY of these mistakes. I will be more than glad to answer it while i’m at work :)